Women, feminism, and geek culture

The left hand of linkspam (19 April 2013)

Diversity Messes With Your Culture, And That’s a Good Thing: “Culture fit matters only insofar as it translates as “values fit.” If “culture fit” is code for “looks like us and talks like us,” it’s a problem for you and your business, because you are sending a message to many prospective employees that they are not welcome – and depriving your business of the many benefits of a diverse team.”

All Tied Up: Homeland And The Female Fabulists: “In an age in which the violent crime rate continues to drop, why do we have to be alert to our surroundings if not because of terrorist wraiths? How could the primal wounding of 9/11 and the subsequent hypermasculinist war on terror not be the secret engine driving these female fabulist narratives?”

The Problem When Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly: “In social psychology, these seemingly-positive-yet-still-somewhat-unsettling comments and behaviors have a name: Benevolent Sexism. Although it is tempting to brush this experience off as an overreaction to compliments or a misunderstanding of benign intent, benevolent sexism is both real and insidiously dangerous.”

“Reports of harassment and abuse in the field: Study of abuse in anthropological field sites. “Survival in field-based academic science can’t just be about who can put up with or witness abuse the longest – that is not an appropriate metric to measure who is the best at their science.”

Sheryl Sandberg: 1% Feminism: “Lean In is not about feminism in general, but about a very particular brand of feminism that, delusions aside, has nothing whatsoever to do with inspiring a social movement.”

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4 thoughts on “The left hand of linkspam (19 April 2013)”

I am really struggling with some of the backlash against Sheryl Sandberg. First it is beginning to sound a little bit like the “Don’t you think there are more important issues?” derailing troupe and second, I think that arguing for work environments that are more accepting and supporting of women is a social change worth making. She argues for inclusiveness and diversity. She argues for changes in culture. The linked article specifically says “That advice is, in fact, about how to have it all, while offering precisely zero guidance on how to dismantle the structural barriers to gender equity that still impede most women.” I have to disagree, she very directly addresses some structural barriers for women and argues for changes to the culture that maintains them.

Also, I am generally against policing people’s use of the word “feminist” or policing any self identification at all (other examples geek, women, Christian, Queer ). Some people don’t think that Sheryl Sandberg is a Feminist but she is choosing that title, and doing so genuinely.

It all boils down to: YOU AREN’T DOING FEMINISM MY WAY! STOP IT!

I read “Lean In” and I found it to be very useful and touching (by the by a lot of the other women grad students in engineering I know thought so too). Women who are often the only women in their work place might find it a bitter pill to swallow to be told that their struggle for equality is not the “right” struggle. She did write the book for a set of privileged women. She states in at the very beginning of the book (and then a couple more time throughout) but I think that women leadership in business and tech is important.

“Let me be candid and tell you that Sheryl Sandberg’s TED speech (h/t TA Snyder) and book, Lean In, tell us nothing that we didn’t already know AND haven’t already said…. She’s absolutely correct about her three points, but there’s far more to breaking through the glass ceilings and crystal silos. Much more….”